I met Mr. Tyndall on a trip up the Canje Creek

Sep 17, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Last Saturday, I traveled up the Canje Creek with my wife and other friends to see where the famous 1763 slave rebellion began. Our host was the inimitable Berbice lawyer and good friend Charrandas Persaud who is a son of the Canje area. When you travel this world, you meet all kinds of people some of whom you cannot describe.
Living on the Canje Creek in a desolate spot is Mr. Bertis Tyndall. He resides not too far from the tiny Seventh Day Adventist Church where he is a preacher. Mr. Tyndall is of the opinion that he is the only person in Guyana’s history that has contributed forty-seven years as a teacher in the hinterlands of Guyana. He retired in 2012 and now preaches at the church and has a little farm.
A soft spoken person, Mr. Tyndall, who is related to Joe Tyndall, the former Trade Minister of the seventies and eighties, gave an intestinal smile when he said that he thought it would have been natural for the Ministry of Education to honour him in some way for his unique contribution to the education of the hinterland.
He listed the famous names from the hinterland whom he taught including the former Minister of Education, Desrey Fox.
He did say that the Region Six Education Director had acknowledged his contribution and had indicated that Region Six may plan an event. But she went on to become an advisor in the Ministry in Georgetown and maybe that halted the process.
If the Minister is reading this, I would humbly advise that in some small way Guyana is made aware of the mammoth contribution this public servant has made to hinterland education.
We came out of the creek in the afternoon and I took the opportunity to chat with Berbicians. One of the unpleasant complaints I received was the service of the New Amsterdam Hospital. Berbicians I spoke with cried out about poor doctor performance and shortage of basic medical stuff, including drugs.
Here is an interesting case I encountered. A woman died at the institution from excessive bleeding. The family enquired about what caused the bleeding but was not given the reason. The family members took their plight to the Guyana Medical Council which failed to obtain documentation from the hospital because there was no paper trail to follow.
Charrandas invited me to be his guest on his Saturday night television interview programme. When the phone lines were opened, there wasn’t even one caller that spoke in favour of the government. I have heard people say that the PPP wants to call early elections but is afraid of the gamble. Now I can see why.
I don’t think the magical hold the PPP had on Berbicians even a few years after Cheddi Jagan died is still there.
When you look at the state of Berbice, the lamentations on the New Amsterdam Hospital and the cries of the sugar workers you are nonplussed to understand how the PPP can allow things in Berbice to fall apart when it was the vexations of Berbicians that caused them to lose their parliamentary majority? What is the analysis?
Maybe it has to do with incumbency.
After twenty-one years in power the PPP is suffering from fatigue, malaise, loss of ideas and complacency. It is anyone’s guess if the PPP can re-energize itself. When you are that long in power, mental attrition takes its toll. When I was traveling to Berbice, I noticed the rubbish that is all over the villages we passed from Region Four right through to New Amsterdam.
Quite a large number of these districts are in the hands of PPP controlled NDCs.
This is an intriguing situation. Georgetowners are constantly reminded of how incompetent the Mayor and City Council is; the Government insists that it is such an affair that lies at the core of the mess that Georgetown has become.
But travel up to Berbice and you see horrible sights of garbage on the highways on both the old highway and the railway embankment. I saw a mountain of rubbish on the highway passing through Enmore. The NDC of Enmore is not in the hands of the Opposition.
As you look at the filth, mess and garbage and you know it is nationwide not Georgetown alone, you fear for the future of Guyana. Daily we are told that Guyana’s growth rate is the only one climbing in Caricom. But the countries with lower growth rates look clean. Guyana looks like it is a civil war during which all you see is breakdown.

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I met Mr. Tyndall on a trip up the Canje Creek

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